Free Essays - Asides in Hamlet

Free Essays - Asides in Hamlet

Asides... what is an asides? Unlike a soliloquy that is spoken when the speaker is the only actor onstage, an aside is spoken by an actor when there are other actors present on the stage. The aside is also meant for the audience, but sometimes an aside is spoken to an actor(s) on the stage, but not to all of the actors on the stage. How do the asides in “Hamlet” by William Shakespeare effect the dynamics of the play? The asides in “Hamlet” have several different dramatic functions; Some of the asides are used to add a bit of irony to the play, others are premonitions of what is going to happen in the play (one is even an ironic premonition), and yet others (most importantly) can be used to look into the character of the actor by what he says of others or what he says of himself (or too himself), and finally all of the asides have the function of helping to set the plot of the play. (I use the male gender because I did not encounter an aside from a female).